House of Stairs

House of Stairs (1974), a science fiction novel by William Sleator, takes place mostly in the peculiar setting of a house of stairs, resembling the visual paradox of the same name designed by M.C. Escher. It follows five teenaged orphans who are abducted and placed in the house of stairs as an unethical experiment in social dynamics. The teenagers band together to find out the truth about the place where they are being held in captivity. The book is well known in the sci-fi genre for its unique take on a futuristic dystopian society, posing one possible outcome of a government that exploits its people, but also vindicating the inherent goodness of humans as the teenagers learn to work together.

The book begins as the five sixteen-year-olds, all orphans from different places and backgrounds, wake up one by one in the house of stairs. Their names are Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail, and Oliver. At first, all they are able to perceive is that they are in a peculiar building with no walls, ceiling, or floor; it seems to be a series of endless sets of stairs that disappear in all directions. From there, the story proceeds in an episodic format, offering glimpses into the characters’ past lives which help to inform their present social dynamics.

Peter, the first person to wake up, wishes he had company in his prison. Not long after, Lola appears: much more resilient and confident, she begins to explore their new world. They resolve to hatch an escape plan together.



Peter and Lola find an overweight orphan named Blossom, who is fiddling with the food machine. When she sticks out her tongue, it lights up, dispensing a small amount of food. Lola makes Blossom give her and Peter some of the food, upsetting her. The two new friends realize that Blossom knows nothing about the world either.

As their argument ends, a girl’s voice echoes from higher up the stairs. They meet Abigail, introducing themselves to each other. Lola leaves to find water and a bathroom. Blossom immediately gossips about Lola,  trying to portray her as evil. Blossom also reveals that her parents recently died in a car crash. She lived in a “real” house, while the others lived in huge mega-skyscrapers and dined on artificial food.

Oliver arrives. Abigail is attracted to his confidence and looks. He seems bound to become the pack leader, but Lola’s confidence makes him feel insecure. Meanwhile, Blossom relates that her tongue motion no longer causes the machine to release food. Oliver takes charge, trying different methods to activate it. Eventually, they realize that the machine responds to dancing whenever it starts making a humming sound. They set up shifts to dance when it emits the strange noise.



Weeks pass and the orphans adjust to their strange world. Peter sleeps often and dreams of his friend at the orphanage. Blossom stares at the food machine and gets into spats with Lola. Oliver begins to antagonize Abigail. Lola focuses on her mental and physical health, exercising on the stairs.

Eventually, the machine no longer responds to dancing. They notice that instead, it responds to arguing. The group experiments to exploit the machine: Blossom says that Lola has been saying mean things about everyone; everyone looks at Lola with revulsion. In response, the machine dispenses a huge amount of food.

While most of the orphans accept this new necessary behavior, Lola thinks about the ultimate intent of the machine. She moves away to a different area, trying to get everyone to boycott the machine. Peter follows, and they try unsuccessfully to get the others to participate. The remaining three orphans find new ways to be cruel. Oliver hits Abigail; Blossom confiscates Abigail’s food and hurls a shoe at her. Injured, they eventually can think of no more cruelty to dispense other than antagonizing Lola and Peter. Now, the two friends are nearly starved. The others taunt them with food from the machine and beat them. They retreat to the machine and get more food, as Lola and Peter approach death.



At this point, Dr. Lawrence, the scientist who is revealed to be conducting the experiment, puts an end to it. An elevator appears to whisk away the orphans to a rehabilitation lab. Dr. Lawrence tells them that they were subjects in a behavior modification experiment, in which Lola and Peter failed because they rebelled. They are sent to a concentration camp, while the other three, deemed “successes,” are released. The novel ends as they emerge into daylight and immediately dance for a streetlight, hoping for it to dispense food. Lola and Peter observe it from their cell. House of Stairs thus presents a world that systemically modifies human behavior to enforce compliance and uniformity at the cost of virtues such as kindness, but poses a possibility of resisting totalitarian order.